Brooklyn Museum Shop Opens for Business

The Brooklyn Museum Shop, designed by Visbeen Associates, is now open for business!  It opened it's doors to the public on April 4 and will be having an open house this evening from 7:00pm-9:00pm - if you are in the NYC area, feel free to stop by! (Click here for details regarding this event)  


The media is talking about this great new space.  As written by New York Magazine, "what began as a humble gift stand in the thirties has morphed into a spacious shop off the museum’s lobby with eclectic gift items from the Americas, Asia, and Africa."  The New York Times featured this article about the expansion:

The Brooklyn Museum Shop Expands

Evan Sung for The New York Times

By TIM McKEOUGH

Published: April 4, 2012

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Evan Sung for The New York Times

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As part of the transformation of its first floor, the Brooklyn Museum has opened an expanded 4,150-square-foot shop with plenty of display space and a special focus on items designed and made in the borough.

“One of the key new things in the store — even though we’ve always had Brooklyn-made products and things that conveyed Brooklyn imagery — is a very large space that honors established and emerging Brooklyn artisans and designers,” said Sallie Stutz, vice director for merchandising.

Among the pieces on display will be wooden toy gorillas by David Weeks ($80 to $105), whose chandeliers also help light the store; Brooklyn-shaped bamboo cutting boards by Amy Stringer-Mowat ($48); and colorful Balancing Blocks by Fort Standard ($85), pictured.

Information: (718) 501-6258 or brooklynmuseum.org.

Stay tuned to our blog for the final photos of the shop - coming soon!

The Treehouse Community Garden

We recently were given the opportunity to work with The Treehouse Community on their plans for a community garden in the Baxter neighborhood.  The Treehouse Community is a group of individuals living in a home together that is focused on praying, sharing, growing and ministering to each other and their neighbors by attending to physical needs as well as emotional and spiritual ones.  Their vision is to create a shared green space in the Baxter neighborhood, where currently there are no sources for nutritious, affordable food within walking distance, making it an official "food desert."  Wayne was able to sit down with them and sketch design ideas for bringing their vision to life.  Here is what he came up with, as well as some photos of the drawing session....

 Site Plan

 Aerial Perspective

 Shed Concept A - Perspective

 Shed Concept A - Elevation

Shed Concept B - Perspective

The plans for the garden include twelve raised vegetable beds intended to be used by families in the area.  The Treehouse Community is also planning to partner with The Baxter Community Center to teach gardening, nutrition, cooking, and canning classes to all ages.


We were happy to partner with them and hopefully achieve their goal, as stated on their blog, to "see God's kingdom advance here on earth, starting with a few seeds, a bit of soil, some water, and the sun."


For more information on this project, please visit The Treehouse Community's blog - treehousegarden.wordpress.com.

Cabin Life: Dreams on Paper

Two of our designs, Horizon View and Bear Tooth Lodge, were featured in Cabin Life Magazine, a national publication that captures the essence of the vacation home lifestyle, in their Dreams on Paper section.  And did you notice that banner on the top of the cover talking about award-winning designs?  They are talking about us!

To see more photos of the Horizon View or Bear Tooth Lodge, please visit the gallery of our website: www.visbeen.biz > gallery > residential > cottages

For ease of reading, click here to view the full article.

Faith in Deeds Ministry Campus in India

We recently had the opportunity to work on a project with a ministry in India called Faith in Deeds.  Faith in Deeds Inc. is a faith-based, not-for-profit organization committed to the support of disenfranchised children of India by providing the children with a family atmosphere in which they can be discipled in the way of the Lord Jesus, by educating them in a manner that they can make properly informed life-decisions based on a Biblical world view, and by inspiring them to love each other and to share the love of Jesus throughout their community.  

Faith in Deeds was able to purchase a 5 acre parcel of land in Andhra Pradesh, India, and Visbeen Associates worked with them to design a new campus that includes a boy's dorm, girl's dorm, playground, community center & clinic, Christian school and green space for gardening and raising animals.  The first phase of the project will be the boy's and girl's dorm.

  Their current rented ministry location

 How the children currently sleep in their dorm rooms. Very typical in the local culture.

The crowded city

 Children from the FID home with the founder of the ministry, Thomas Mollhagen (originally from South India, adopted into a family from Grand Rapids, MI) and his wife Dana.

 Their newly acquired land for the new campus with a corn field on the border of the property

 The pump and irrigation pool on the property with kids from the FID home

 Taking a tour of the land with the kids on the day they dedicated it to the work of the Lord

 Our design concept for the new campus

We will keep you updated on the progress of this project here on our blog and on our facebook page, so check back!

For more information on the ministry, visit Faith in Deeds' website - www.faithindeeds.org - or facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Faith-In-Deeds-USA/339566304349?ref=ts.

Highfield Taking Shape for the Spring Parade of Homes!

The Highfield is taking shape! This masterpiece will be featured in the Kalamazoo Parade of Homes June 8-16, so mark your calendars and don't miss the opportunity to take your own private tour of this lakeside retreat! Until then, we can all swoon over these progress photos that give a glimpse of what the final product will be like...

 Front Exterior

 Rear Exterior

 Beautiful landscape and hardscape surrounding the waterfront side of this home

 Hard at work on the hardscape - but not a bad view during the work day, right?

 Staircase

 Master Bathroom

 Master Bathroom Shower

 View from the balcony of the master bedroom - yes, please!

 Kitchen

 Dining Room

 Living Room

 One of the greatest features of this home - the boat bar!  Bottom's Up!

Lower level with sunken living room

Built by Falcon Custom Homes, Interiors by Ashley Cole Design, Landscaping by Alfresco Landscapes, Boat Bar by Carlson Design with Visbeen Associates.

To see more photos, please visit our facebook page!

Detroit Home Design Award Winners!

We took home two awards from the Detroit Home Design Awards this month!

1st Place - New Model Home

Stockton

Built by Falcon Homes, Interiors by Gallery Interiors

3rd Place - Small Remodel (less than 1,000 square feet)

Carlton

Built by Jeff Segard, Interiors by Donna Cohen

[Check out our previous blog post showing the before and after photos of this remodel - it was a doosie!]

To view all of the Detroit Home Design Award winners, check out the spring issue of Detroit Home Magazine on our website.

Finishing Up Show Season At Home!

It's already time for our last trade show this show season, and we are finishing it up at home in Grand Rapids! We will be at the Cottage & Lakefront Living Show at the DeVos Place, which starts tomorrow. The show runs through Sunday with the following hours....

Friday, March 23..............3:00pm - 9:00pm

Saturday, March 24.........10:00am - 9:00pm

Sunday, March 25.............11:00am - 5:00pm

Wayne will be doing his presentation on Waterfront Design: Challenges & Opportunities on Saturday from 2:00pm - 3:00pm and will be sketching LIVE at the booth Friday, Saturday morning and Sunday, so don't miss your opportunity to learn from a pro!

We look forward to seeing you there and having a great final show of 2012!